For Discussion: Judge Rules That All Of “Scary” Jerry Sandusky’s “Peen State” Accusers Must Use Real Identities At Trial, Fair Or Foul??

If you accuse someone of something you should have to face them and the public…right??

Judge Rules Sandusky Accusers Must Use Real Identities In Trial

The judge in Jerry Sandusky’s child sex abuse trial ruled Monday that the alleged victims of the former Penn State assistant football coach will have to testify using their real names.

McKean County Senior Judge John Cleland also ruled that tweets or other electronic dispatches from reporters covering the trial, which begins Tuesday, will not be allowed, reversing a previous ruling.

At a pretrial hearing in Bellafonte, Pa., Cleland also resolved a dispute over research into potential jurors, rejecting a motion by Sandusky’s lawyer to order the state attorney general’s office to turn over information it has collected about potential jurors.

Jury selection is scheduled to begin Tuesday in Sandusky’s trial on 52 counts that he sexually abused 10 boys over a 15-year period. Sandusky, 68, who remains confined in his home in State College, Pa., has repeatedly denied the charges.

Lawyers for five Sandusky accusers had requested that their clients be allowed to testify under pseudonyms.

Cleland rejected the motion, but pledged that the court would “cooperate when possible” to protect witness privacy and personal information.

“Arguably any victim of any crime would prefer not to appear in court, not to be subjected to cross-examination, not to have his or her credibility evaluated by a jury – not to put his name and reputation at stake,” the judge wrote. “But we ask citizens to do that every day in courts across the nation.”

The judge noted the sensitivity of the issue, and the efforts that both sides have made to protect the men to this point. But “once the trial begins, the veil must be lifted,” he wrote.

We get that most of these young men would rather not be put out there like that, but is the judge wrong to not protect them?